INDEPENDENT NEEDLEWORK NEWS

One of my favorite things to do is read People magazine. I’ve loved it for well over twenty years and, in fact, you’re as likely to find me reading People as stitching.

It’s NOT that stitching and People are on an equal par in my life — don’t get me wrong there, LOL! But sometimes, I have to take off the magnifying glasses I now require to stitch so I can rest my eyes. Then, especially if I don’t want to get too involved, as I might with a really good book, it’s People I reach for and curl up with for a while. People and at least one cat, of course.

(Sadly, it seems the older I get, the fewer people in People I know. A couple of months ago, I did not know anyone who had crushes on either of the teenaged cover-persons. Heck, I did not even recognize either of their names! Fortunately, they weren’t the only people mentioned in that week’s issue. )

Anyway, to bring this discussion on topic, today I want to share with you the cross stitch news blog of one of my regular readers and commenters. Allura has been doing a fabulous job with her own Cross Stitch News (Blogroll) since she began it in May. It’s always a treat to see what she’s found worthy of her blog subtitle: “Stitching in the News and Around the Internet” (copyright Allura, 2007). The majority of Allura’s posts (unlike mine, LOL) are short and sweet — easily digested, well worth adding to your diet, AND delicious. Therefore, I am confident that fitting them into your already hectic schedule will not be too difficult, and will soon prove to be of merit.

Lately, I find myself turning first to the pages of Cross Stitch News rather than to People when I need those breaks from stitching. My DH has even teased me that I’ve started keeping People in the bathroom lately (where it was never allowed before), and asking what’s up with that because I used to be able to go to the bathroom alone. I’m not sure if my DH thinks I’m too addicted to stitching, or if I’m a workaholic who’s doing too much bringing my work home with me, but at the moment, I’ve answered him a bit defensively, “I’m just not quite ready to give up my People altogether, and the bathroom is about the only place in my life it fits, okay?”

So People is still one of my guilty pleasures … Cross Stitch News is something for Allura to be very proud of, though — and for me to feel not the least bit guilty about reading or recommending to you!

Technorati Tags: Cross Stitch News, CSNews, Stitching in the News and Around the Internet, Allura, People magazine, magazine

Kim Ritchie has developed a wonderful product she calls QSnap Huggers (Blogroll). What’s a QSnap Hugger? Well, I’m thrilled to tell you! I’ve been hugging my QSnaps for about a month now, and our relationship is better than ever. It’s true what they say — if you just reach out and give a hug, you start getting hugs back. Sometimes when you least expect them. Oh, sorry, wait … that’s from something I’ve been working on with my nephew.

On the other hand, I think it still applies; otherwise, I would have just deleted it outright. Or maybe not — you all know by now that I like to try being a little funny. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I really fail. Anyway.

QSnap Huggers have several purposes. One is to help keep the edges of your stitching fabric from getting soiled, and as each QSnap Hugger is fully machine washable, it’s easy to make sure you always have a clean QSnap Hugger to use for your latest project!

Another reason to use a QSnap Hugger is because if you hold your QSnap in hand, they may make it easier for you to grip the QSnap itself — whether because the fabric is softer, warmer, or doesn’t move as easily as the QSnap “snap.” Here’s the hug part — my hands feel like my QSnaps are hugging me back when I use my QSnap Huggers! Okay, maybe I’m pushing the humor a little, but they do help my hands feel better … and that means I can stitch longer — and THAT is worth what quite a few hugs feel like, no kidding around this time.

QSnap Huggers are also a great way to manage that extra 3 inches (more or less, as the case may be ) of fabric around our stitching; you just tuck all of that into your QSnap Hugger, which keeps it nicely neat and out of the way. No more accidentally stitching through any of that extra fabric (oh, come on, I can’t be the only one who still did that, even after over thirty years of stitching, until I learned my QSnaps like to be hugged just as much as I do?), no more constantly losing a thread from your fabric edge (or stitching it to the back of your project, which I also used to do frequently before I learned to hug my QSnaps), and no more of your favorite pets sitting on your lap or beside you thinking they ought to be able to use that piece of fabric sticking out in their direction for batting practice, as a chew toy, or even, as much as we’d love them to really give it a go, to practice stitching on themselves (funny how when you give them their own piece of fabric, their interest completely wanes once you are no longer seemingly attached to it). Can you tell that this is my favorite reason for QSnap Huggers?

Finally, of course, we decorate all of our other stitching accouterments — our scissors get fobs, our tape measures get stitched cases, our needles get oodles and oodles of lovely stitched needlebooks … heck, some of us actually started justified starting started our scissor collections so we’d have a way to display our scissor fob collection. So why wouldn’t we also want to decorate our QSnaps?

They come in a variety of attractive fabrics depending on what Kim has available at the time — you might want an entire set which matches, as I did (and I plan to stitch pretty little labels for them so I can easily tell which size they’re for … although I’ll probably end up waiting until several designers have released patterns for just that before I manage to get around to it, knowing me!) or perhaps you’ll want different fabrics for each size of Hugger to help you tell them apart. Or, if you have some fabric of your own that you really like, Kim will work with you to have you mail her the fabric and give you individualized pricing.

Kim’s prices on her QSnap Huggers (using fabric she provides) are exceedingly reasonable:

6″ X 6″ - $5.00
6″ X 8″ - $5.50
6″ X 11″ - $5.75
8” X 8” - $5.75
8” X 11” - $6.00
11” X 11” - $6.75
11” X 17” - $7.50
17” X 17” - $8.50

For orders above $50, Kim also offers free shipping! Otherwise, her US shipping costs are just $1.50 for the first QSnap Hugger and $.50 for each one thereafter. International buyers are welcome and should contact Kim directly for more information on shipping costs. Kim accepts PayPal (sorry, no credit or debit cards), personal checks, money orders, or concealed cash as payment.

Additionally, because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, Kim has picked out eleven pretty fabrics with some kind of pink goodness in them and promised to donate 20% of the price of every QSnap Hugger made in one of those gorgeous fabrics to Breast Cancer Charities. Isn’t that fantastic! Look at this cute pattern with the pink ribbons hidden among pretty flowers:

The only problem is, we are already 86% of the way through the month of October, yet only $1.15 — yes, you read that right: one dollar and fifteen cents — has been raised toward Breast Cancer Charities.

Okay, actually, it’s just a little more than that because I just sent Kim a small order myself, but it’s for an odd size, so I’ll have to wait for a quote rather than being able to tell you exactly what the amount is that she’s raised toward Breast Cancer Charities. But I know we can do better than this.

Dear readers, I’m not making any money off of Independent Needlework News yet (I’m working on some ideas for that, including getting Google Ads up here, but first I want a different template … anyway, I digress [hi, Dennis, leave me a note if you get this ] … back to the point —>), or I would offer to match the total amount Kim raises to help the cause. Especially because it’s a bit more personal to me than any of us EVER want it to be, and I still can’t get any real answers around here (it’s those flunkie doctors in this state). Next year, I hope to be able to do some type of fundraiser myself, and in fact, I am already working on the plans for it. I believe when we cure breast cancer, we will also have found the cures for — or at least made huge strides toward finding the cures for our other swift and sure footed killers — ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, and cervical cancer, as well as all of those other horribly painful female conditions, (several of which I have lived with myself for many, many years) like endometriosis, adenomyosis, fibrocystic breasts, and uterine fibroid tumors that are considered “benign,” but which I know from experience certainly don’t feel anything like “kind.” In fact, at least some days, they feel as malignant and painful as any of those terrible female cancers — and that is one of the many reasons we have got to find the cure for breast cancer.

So please, don’t just think about hugging your QSnaps today … Do it, and help at the same time to make it possible for all women to hug our great grandmothers, our grandmothers, our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our aunts, our cousins, our daughters, our friends, and all of the men in our lives who love us so much and who have sat by and watched too many of us suffer, struggle, fight, and even die.

Please, buy at least one pink fabric QSnap Hugger this month — just one. Get one in your most often used size QSnap, and if you don’t like it as a QSnap Hugger, perhaps you can find some alternate uses for it — it might work as a decorative casserole dish wrap, for example. But I’m certain you’ll like it as a QSnap Hugger, I think your QSnaps deserve a hug, and I KNOW YOU deserve a cure for breast cancer. Someday, we will find that cure, we will win, and it could be the QSnap Hugger YOU buy that puts us across the finish line. Imagine that.

“Giving your QSnap a hug never looked & felt so good.” (copyright 2007, Kim Ritchie, along with all pictures in this article)

Technorati Tags: QSnap Huggers, October, Kim Ritchie, breast cancer awareness month, breast cancer

For some time now, I’ve admired crazy quilting from a distance. I even took a class back in October, 2001, in Romulus, Michigan with the legendary Carole Samples (why does this woman not have a website?), during which my grandmother passed away and I also learned I did not get a job I really wanted and had been fully led to expect to get. 

Unfortunately, the class organizers had done a very poor job of organizing anything (for instance, there was not enough food for all of the attendees to eat, even when it was served to us instead of buffet style).  On top of it all, when I had the “nerve to complain”  I was hungry and expected something to eat, especially since we were being hosted at a Hilton, the retreat organizers demanded I leave!  Somehow my stomach growling loudly and rather angrily sounding after missing two meals had upset a couple of people in the class sitting nowhere near me who had no idea what was going on, or what was making the noise.  I was deemed to be setting a bad example and ruining the retreat for others, and so I was ordered to leave without being allowed to explain “my side,” without being able to make any appeal, without being able to inform them of my grandmother’s death, and without even receiving any portion of my money back!  Oh, and I did not get my class kits either.    My one big regret is that I did not make my complaints known to Carole Samples, who, as far as I know, would have been appalled at the treatment I received from the organizers.  As a result of this experience, I  have had a bad taste in my mouth for crazy quilting that has lasted to this day.

However, I’m still very attracted to the idea of crazy quilting. Probably not to a lot of the crazy quilting that has come into fashion quite recently — I don’t see myself using pictures on crazy quilts, for example. I’m also not crazy about things that are Victorian style, so I would be doing things which reflect an entirely different decorating style and color palette. I also think that most of the time I would tend to go for the simpler look — although the style known as “encrusted crazy quilting” (which is a type of crazy quilting just smothered with beads and all sorts of sparkly doodads and whatnots until it seems there isn’t any more space to add another bit of sparkle to a piece) is extremely popular right now, it also is really not my particular style or interest.

It’s all yummy eye candy and terrific inspiration for sure, but what interests ME, as a needleworker, about crazy quilting is having a purpose to use all sorts of lovely fancy embroidery stitches in something other than a band sampler.

However, one of several things which has held me back from giving crazy quilting much of a try on my own — besides not having my class kit and supplies from the class I mentioned above — has been wondering how I’ll ever be able to make such nice, neat stitches as all the crazy quilters seem to do. Well, it turns out that at least some of the best crazy quilters out there, including Carole Samples herself, use a little help to make everything come out looking so nice and neat. Some of us might call it cheating; others of us would call it smart or a trick of the trade.

Personally, I’m just surprised because, still being outside the crazy quilting world myself, the thought that this wasn’t all done completely by hand — and that it’s actually OKAY to use a tool to help you get things just right — hadn’t even occurred to me. Suddenly, if I could get my hands on this tool (the shops I’ve found who carry it are currently out of stock, sigh … well, perhaps they know I’m broke!), I feel like maybe I could grasp crazy quilting by myself now.

Sharon Boggon reviewed Carole Samples’ Dream-a-Seam Templates in excellent detail, and from the point of view of how they can be useful to an experienced crazy quilter. The fact that one of the most well known crazy quilters in the stitching universe thinks so highly of the Dream-a-Seam Templates tells me they are a super tool.

But read all the comments on Sharon’s post, too. Carole Samples actually posted a comment on Sharon’s review (in response to a question from another commenter) that one of her intentions in creating the Dream-A-Seam Templates was to help crazy quilters get over a hurdle preventing them from even getting started creating a piece of crazy quilted artwork. That’s pretty much where I fall, so the Dream-A-Seam Templates should be helpful and a lot of fun for me — if I can just get my hands on them in the first place! :D  Then the hardest decision left to make will be which seam to use — and from Sharon’s review, that sounds like a decision which could confound me for months, LOL …

By the way, the commenter to whom Carole was responding, Sarah E., felt using Carole’s Dream-A-Seam tool might not be all that historically accurate with what crazy quilters in days long past used to do — and went on from there to make some very insightful remarks regarding crazy quilters today having a bit of a hangup about making things perfect.  I think Sarah’s thoughts apply to needleworkers of any kind and are relevant in several types of discussions, so I will likely be referring back to Sarah E.’s comments at some point in the future — as well as trying to locate her.  (If anyone can help me locate her, I would really appreciate it!)

Technorati Tags: Carole Samples, Dream-a-Seam, templates, encrusted, crazy quilt, Dream a seam, Sharon Boggon, Hilton 

These scissors, made by Olfa, are recommended by Judy Odell of Just A Thought herself. She discovered them one day and shared with her EZBoard readers that she had started regularly using them in her finishing business because they made her work so much easier. If I remember correctly, as unfortunately I am unable to find the post where she discussed them, the wording she used to describe them was something along the lines of being able to use them to go back and forth between cutting mat board and fabric “like butter.”

Or, now that I think about it, especially since it was during this time that I actually ordered my own pair, it is also possible that where I recall Judy mentioning these fantastic scissors was in the now discontinued (because the class is completed) YahooGroup during the very first online class for My Treasures Workstation, which I thoroughly enjoyed taking (and I finished during the class, too, which is much easier than you’d think with Judy’s wonderful finishing instructions — and is also highly recommended because she gives everyone who finishes during the class a special prize very much worth trying very hard to complete that final finishing deadline).

This is the shop I ordered my pair from, and I was very happy with their service; however, I am located in the same state as this shop, so I would expect shipping to be very fast if the United States Postal Service is doing its job properly.

I got the 5″ pair about a year ago and have used them frequently for any number of cutting jobs. They seem as sharp today as they were the day they arrived on my doorstep and are certainly one of the best purchases I’ve made, especially since I started trying to finish my own needlework. Cutting mat board is far from the easiest thing in the world, but with these scissors, you’ll almost forget you ever knew that.

By the way, Judy has moved her bulletin board to a new location, since EZBoard announced some time ago they would close (to be replaced by Yuku).

[tags] Judy Odell, Just a Thought, Olfa, scissors, EZBoard, Yuku, needlework, finishing, My Treasures Workstation [tags]

I received a question from a reader (who prefers to remain anonymous, but thank you all the same for giving me the opportunity to weigh in on this very important NEWS ISSUE within the needlework community) late yesterday asking me to confirm or deny a rumor going around that popular thread company (certainly one of MY personal favorites!) Needle Necessities either has gone or is going out of business.

This rumor is COMPLETELY FALSE.

I spoke directly with Debbie BuSteed, Needle Necessities’ front Office Manager, on the telephone just minutes ago using the main Needle Necessities number posted on their website (714-892-9211). Debbie was very forthcoming and confirmed that while she has heard the rumor and received numerous calls about its veracity, it is NOT TRUE. If ANYONE would know whether or not this rumor were true, it would be Debbie.

Perhaps partly fueling the FALSE rumor is the fact that a few Needle Necessities’ employees have chosen to leave the company for personal reasons. Therefore, Needle Necessities has been running shorthanded, which has in some cases left them somewhat behind in filling orders.

However, they are catching up with all their employees pitching in wherever they can. Debbie herself is doing pretty much everything from answering the phones and taking orders right through to shipping — except the actual dyeing, she says, which she does not know how to do.

***************************************************************************

Now, on a somewhat different note, I would just like to refer you to another of my absolute favorite Internet resources. It’s called the Internet Tourbus, is written with intelligence and a generous dose of good humor by Bob Rankin and Patrick Crispen, and I have been subscribing to it for literally YEARS, even though I know the Internet pretty well by now. In particular, I would like to mention an archived Internet Tourbus issue concerning people who have spread false rumors which resulted in harming a company’s business … And THAT resulted in those people being SUED by a big company — Proctor & Gamble, to be specific … And the little people LOST the lawsuits — BIG TIME — because they had lied without bothering to check their facts, and thus were deemed to have willfully harmed Proctor & Gamble’s business.

So my personal advice to anyone who has been spreading this rumor about Needle Necessities which I have now FLATLY DEBUNKED is that you post immediate retractions everywhere you posted the rumor ASAP to CYA. Better to be as safe as possible at this point than sorrier than horse poop. Feel free to refer people to this article here on Independent Needlework News for the facts; the direct link to this article is:

http://independentneedleworknews.com/2007/08/21/nn-not-out-of-business/

or you can also use the TinyURL code: http://tinyurl.com/2gru83

And sign up (or as Bob and Patrick call it, get a free ticket) for the Internet Tourbus, too. You’ll enjoy it; I promise!

Technorati Tags: Needle Necessities, rumor, out of business, Internet Tourbus, Proctor & Gamble, lawsuit, sue, Bob Rankin, Patrick Crispen

It’s hard for me to believe anyone — stitcher or not — has yet to subscribe to the wonderful online magazine, The Gift of Stitching (fondly abbreviated as TGOSM, with the M standing for magazine … or maybe marvelous!). But apparently it is actually the case that there are still a few stragglers, so I’m taking them on as a personal challenge.

Therefore, here are the Top Ten Reasons to Subscribe to The Gift of Stitching magazine during August 2007:

10. You might have been using the wrong needle all this time!

9. You can never have enough Altoid tin covers.

8. You don’t want to leave a basket half finished.

7. You want to know how and why Gloria Moore chose the name of her design company.

6. You don’t want to be one of the last to hear about the special new pattern being released by Needleprint.

5. Who wouldn’t want to try to win one of the sets of thread Stitches and Spice is so graciously giving away?

4. You Followed the Leader and now you’re addicted to White Musings!

3. There’s still time to stitch Helga Mandl’s cute back to school designs before school is REALLY back in session.

2. Debbie Draper’s design My Little Book of Stitches is just GORGEOUS!

1. You need to be a current subscriber in order to win the designing competition sponsored by Dinky Dyes in honor of their 5th year of business.

Technorati Tags: Gift of Stitching, magazine, Dinky Dyes, design competition, designing competition, My Little Book of Stitches, Debbie Draper, Helga Mandl, back to school, Follow the Leader, White Musings, Stitches and Spice, Needleprint, Gloria Moore, finishing for baskets

Linabear.com has just opened for business! Linabear.com is the realized dream of brand new cross stitch and knitting designer Selina of Linabear Creations.

I’m really impressed with Selina’s designs, which include several perfect for the very popular biscornu finishing technique. Being someone who loves the pitter patter of little furry feet, I’m partial to Aireen’s Paws:

Selina has also designed an absolutely ADORABLE knitting pattern of a dog. Here is Spartacus all ready for adoption:

If Selina ever designs a knit cat anywhere near this darling, it will absolutely guarantee I learn how to knit!

During Linabear.com’s Grand Opening Week (from now through April 15th), you can use coupon code e5bd320f52 and receive 20% off your entire order. It doesn’t get much better than that … so hurry over to Linabear.com and see what you have to have!

Technorati Tags: linabear, linabear.com, cross stitch, knitting, sale, biscornu, biscornu class, finishing school, Handcrafts Online, dog, paws, Aireen’s Paws

These scissors, which have a laser to guide you in cutting a straight line, are available here:

Perhaps the idea will catch on and scissors designed for cutting fabric will be enhanced with lasers, too … Until then, I can dream!

Technorati Tags: laser, lazer scissors, scissors, laser scissors, cutting fabric, cross stitch